In the game of golf, players are frequently required to bend down to pick up balls from places below or at ground level. The ball is regularly picked up from the bottom of the golf hole, a cup-shaped depression which is at least 4 inches below the surface of the putting green. (See USGA Rules of Golf, Definitions Section; http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Definitions/#Rules). Golf is enjoyed by players greatly varied in physical ability, so that a significant number of golfers experience difficulty performing the essential physical task of picking up the ball.
This difficulty has long been known and accordingly has been addressed in prior art. The prior art includes numerous devices which are not incorporated into a golf club or any other piece of golf equipment necessarily carried by players. All such prior art requires the user to carry an additional piece of equipment, which is generally substantial in size and weight and is therefore burdensome. Such prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,896 (Martin), U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,565 (Dodd), U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,744 (Vogrin), U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,409 (Forey), U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,659 (Taylor), U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,146 (Liu et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,488 (Richmond et al), U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,117 (Erickson), U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,497 (Brandt et al), U.S. Pat. No. 6,348,017 (Yates), U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,796 (Hung) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,229,365 (Berry). No such prior art resembles the present invention in basic form or functional detail.
The prior art also includes golf putter heads incorporating means for picking up golf balls. Such prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,302 (Thomas) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,372 (Colucci) and Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2007/0191131 (Nickel). All such prior art presents substantial disadvantages relating to putter-head shape and size in that the requirement of shape and size allowing incorporation of pick-up means is unrelated to the putter head's essential purpose of striking the ball and sharply limiting with respect to essential performance-related considerations. Many popular putter-head shapes and sizes are too small or incompatibly-shaped for incorporation of pick-up means. Golfers typically hold preferences for certain putter-head shapes and sizes based on subtle, nuanced and highly-individual performance factors relevant to ball striking, such as feel and distribution of weight. Golfers typically find unwieldy and unhelpful any putter-head shape or size that serves a purpose, such as ball pick-up, other than the essential purpose of striking the ball effectively.
Some prior art includes pick-up means incorporated or installed not into the putter head but rather into or onto the grip-end of the putter. Some such prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,635 (Nadratowski) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,309,293 (Dunks), teaches a cup or other cavity lacking dynamic grabbing means helpful to ball pick-up. Other such prior art teaches dynamic grabbing means. This prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,318,628 (White), U.S. Pat. No. 6,743,113 (Petting a et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,384,347 (Milne), as well as Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2009/0149270 (Nickel) and a wire-finger pickup device made by Nickel.
Although the incorporation of dynamic grabbing means is generally an improvement, all such prior art lacks satisfactory functionality, durability, ease of installation and simplicity of manufacture. Some of the key problems of the prior art devices related to durability; for example, devices using wire fingers for the grabbing means are prone to bend, deform and break beyond usefulness, making the useable life of the products unacceptably short. Others are unacceptably rigid and thus difficult to use. Despite the great need for acceptable ball-grabbing devices, particularly for senior and handicapped golfers, there has been no widely-accepted device which is easy to use, highly durable, simple to manufacture and easy to install.